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Iced coffee is refreshing and delicious, but I’ve never been able to make it as well as I’d like. As it turns out, I was doing it wrong. Rather than prepare it with a traditional hot brew method, I should have been cold brewing it. This reduces acidity and produces a concentrated flavor that stands up well to ice, sugar, and cream. The Hario Cold Water Coffee Dripper makes this easy and aesthetically beautiful, with its clear stand, lab-style glass, and high-quality components. The instructions are in Japanese, but I figured it all out from the illustrations (and a peek at some web videos). Place grounds into the filter chamber, wet them, then fill the reservoir with cold water. Open the drip valve to a 1-drip-per-second rate, then wait a few hours for liquid gold to brew through to the carafe.

John Edgar Park likes to make things and tell people about it. He works in CG animation at DisneyToon Studios and writes for Make, Boing Boing, and other places online and in print. You can find him at jpixl.net and twitter @johnedgarpark — if you like that sort of thing.